By Jeremy Sollars
Landowners across the Southern Downs and Granite with more than five hectares will be slugged with a minimum $500 fee next financial year if they fail to comply with the council’s pest management requirements.
Councillors at a special meeting in Warwick last week voted in favour of adopting a new ‘Invasive Pest Control Scheme Policy’ which report by officers said was aimed at “incentivising and increasing voluntary compliance with invasive pest control requirements”.
The scheme could net more than $1.1 million in revenue each financial year for the council, depending on the extent of compliance by landowners.
Invasive pests include pest animals such as foxes, feral dogs and pigs and invasive plant species such as African boxthorn, tree pear and blackberry.
Around 5000 primary production and non-primary production properties in the region will fall under the new pest control scheme, and landowners will receive advice on their required actions with their next rates notices to be issued in the first week of July.
They will be required to submit a ‘Proposed Works Form’ to the council within 30 days of receiving their rates notices, on which they will outline what pest control actions they plan to undertake on their lands in the new financial year, with works required to be completed by March 2018.
If they fail to submit a ‘Proposed Works Form’, they will be sent one reminder notice, and if the form is still not returned, they will be placed on a council hit-list to be levied later in the financial year with the minimum $500 fee. This fee will be calculated on a sliding scale by a rate-in-the-dollar charged the same way as rates, based on land valuations.
The report to last week’s special meeting concedes that “it is not reasonable to expect that all 5000 properties subjected to the scheme will be inspected” by council’s pest management officers.
It also makes it clear that existing staff dealing with pest management “do not have the capacity to undertake the field and administration work required to deliver the scheme” and that new staff will need to be recruited.
The report also states that “it is anticipated a percentage of landowners will submit ‘Proposed Works Forms’ fraudulently stating there is no work to be done” and that “should inspections reveal that to be the case, landowners will be provided with the opportunity to submit a revised ‘Proposed Works Form’.
“The special charge needs to be sufficiently high to act as an incentive for landowners to fulfil their invasive pest control obligations,” the report also states.
“Monies collected by the scheme will be reinvested directly into new initiatives to improve invasive pest management outcomes in SDRC.”
Councillors at the special meeting were informed the new scheme would involve a “significant administrative burden” and in addition to its two current Local Laws officers would require an additional field officer and a vehicle and a dedicated administration officer.
Overall annual costs of running the scheme are estimated at $250,000.
The council is expected to put the plan out for public consultation in coming weeks.
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